More on Wallace's withdrawal

Fort Bend Now has just about everything I could want to know.

In an afternoon press conference at Sugar Land City Hall, flanked by his wife and daughters, Wallace also said he will not seek re-election as mayor of Sugar Land, but would not say whether he intends to run in the Republican Party primary for Congressional District 22 in 2008.

He can't come out and say it, of course, because that would be admitting the reality of Representative Lampson. Assuming, that is, that he wouldn't go ahead and mount a primary challenge to Shelley Sekula-Gibbs in the event of a miracle for her.

Wallace took a swipe at [the process that selected Sekula-Gibbs as the consensus choice] Monday. "In a session closed to the public, an alternative candidate received the endorsement of the Texas Republican Party by winning a straw poll of 83 precinct chairs that were allowed to vote for what was labeled ‘the Republican choice’ for the write-in candidate to replace Tom DeLay," he said.

Since that night, "I have received hundreds and hundreds of emails and phone calls" by "people who were not allowed to vote" at the Thursday meeting, and who "strongly encouraged me to continue to run," Wallace said.

"Without exception, these callers and supporters questioned this made-up process and asked why 83 individuals could determine the 'Republican choice' candidate for over 33,000 Republican primary voters across the district," he said. "Rather than unifying our party, it has only caused further fragmentation."

Nonetheless, Wallace said, Texas GOP Chairman Tina Benkiser announced that "she had a commitment for $3 million for this race from Washington" as long as there was only one GOP write-in candidate.

"I believe that with those promised resources, and a masterfully crafted campaign, a write-in candidacy is a winnable venture," Wallace said. "Therefore, in an effort to support the Texas Republican Party, I am going to Austin on Wednesday and ask Secretary of State Roger Williams to withdraw my name as a write-in candidate for CD-22."

He sure doesn't sound like someone who really wanted to drop out, does he? Well, maybe if there wasn't a carrot for him to depart there was a big enough stick. We may never know.

On Monday, Wallace said his campaign has spent the last few weeks meeting with White House representatives, members of the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Texas congressional delegation.

"We have a stellar finance committee comprised of some of the biggest fundraisers for President Bush and influential business leaders recognized throughout the district," Wallace said. "However, this entire team agrees that it is impossible to win this write-in campaign with two Republican candidates in the race."

He urged voters in the district "to join me in writing in Shelley Sekula-Gibbs on Nov. 7. Together, we will defeat Nick Lampson."

Yeah, well, good luck with that. I've crunched a few numbers on this over at Kuff's World. You tell me how realistic this is.

Lampson campaign manager Mike Malaise said he believes "we’re getting to the point where people in the district are tiring of that bickering back and forth. And," he said, "they want to hear somebody talk about the issues.

"That’s why all of the mail we’re sending out, and the TV, is pro-Nick Lampson, and defining his stances on the issues," Malaise said.

Normally, of course, I'd expect a wad of money to be spent on anti-Lampson attack ads. I just wonder how much of that $3 million kitty will be budgeted to driving up Lampson's negatives, and how much will be devoted to educating people about the write-in process. As with so many things in this year's election, there's just no precedent to guide me in taking a guess.

One last thing, from today's Chron story:

Sekula-Gibbs does not plan to resign her Houston City Council seat during the congressional race. Her council term runs until the end of 2007.

So either she's going to be a part-time candidate (one presumes the national GOP might expect more for its $3 million commitment than that), or she's going to start shirking her duties in City Council. Let's keep a running total of how many Council meetings she misses while campaigning.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on August 22, 2006 to Election 2006 | TrackBack